The document explores the concept of 'self' from various philosophical and disciplinary perspectives, highlighting key contributions from figures such as Socrates, Plato, Augustine, Descartes, Locke, Hume, Kant, Freud, Ryle, Churchland, and Merleau-Ponty. Each philosopher offers distinct views on the nature, structure, and understanding of the self, including the interplay between body and mind, consciousness, and identity. The material serves as a foundation for students to critically examine their own understanding of self and identity through historical and contemporary lenses.

1. Various Perspectives
The Self From

2. How well do you know
yourself? Are you aware of
your talents? Skills?
Weaknesses? Strengths?

3. The persistent
question, "Who am I?"
is rooted in the human
need to understand the
basis of the
experiences of the
"self".

4. • Important philosophers from ancient to contemporary
times sought to describe the essential qualities that
compose a person's uniqueness.
• Sociology sees the "self" as a product of social
interactions, developed over time through social activities
and experiences.
• Anthropology views the "self" as a culturally shaped
constructor idea.
• Rather than giving a definition, psychology sees the "self"
as having characteristics or properties that can be used to
describe it.
•

5. In this chapter, the student will
understand the construct of the self
from various disciplinal
perspectives. The student will also
reflect on a concrete experience on
a holistic point of view.

6. I. Objective:
At the end of the lesson, students will be able demonstrate
various ways of understanding the self.
II. Learning Outcomes:
At the end of the course, students will be able to:
1. Discuss the different representations and conceptualizations of the self
from various disciplinal perspectives;
2. Compare and contrast how the self has been represented across different
disciplines and perspectives;
3. Examine the different influences, factors, and forces that shape the self;
and
4. Demonstrate critical and reflective thought in analyzing the development
of one's self and identity by developing a theory of the self.

7. How Do You View Yourself?
Responsible Open-Minded Creative
Faithful Kind-
hearted
Generous

8. How did ancient thinkers view a human being? Who
were those curious enough to study how human
beings perceive themselves? One aspect that makes
us humans different from all other creatures on earth
is our capacity to build on knowledge. We learn, we
apply it in our lives, and we use acquired ideas to
create.

9. Socrates

10. • Socrates was a Greek philosopher and one of the very
few individuals who shaped Western thought.
• Knowledge about Socrates is through second-hand
information from the writings of his student Plato and
historian Xenophon.
• Socrates was known for his method of inquiry in
testing an idea.

11. The care of
the soul is
the task of
philosophy.
The soul is
immortal
Virtue is
necessary to
attain
happiness.
Some of Socrates' ideas
were:

12. • Socrates believed that philosophy had a very
important role to play in the lives of the people. One of
his most-quoted phrases is, "The unexamined life is
not worth living."
• According to Socrates, self-knowledge or the
examination of one's self, as well as the question
about how one ought to live one's life, are very
important concerns because only by knowing yourself
can you hope to improve your life (Rappe, 1995).

13. • He added self-knowledge would open your eyes to
your true nature
• In fact, your real self is not even your body. According
to Socrates, the state of your inner being determines
the quality of your life.

14. • Socrates said existence is of two kinds:
1.The visible
2.The invisible
• In the Socratic Dialogue, Plato wrote what
Socrates said about the body and the soul:
"When the soul and body are together nature
assigns our body to be a slave and to be ruled
and the soul to be ruler and master"

15. • Socrates also believed that the goal of life is to be
happy.
• According to Socrates, the virtuous man is a happy
man, and that virtue alone is the one and only
supreme good that will secure his/her happiness.
• According to Socrates, even death is a trivial matter
for the truly virtuous because he/she has realized that
the most important thing in life is the state of his/her
soul and the acts taken from taking care of the soul
through self-knowledge.

16. Plato

17. • He wrote the Socratic Dialogue where Socrates was
the main character and speaker.
• Plato's philosophical method was what he identified as
"collection and division"
• He is best known for his Theory of Forms that
asserted the physical world is not really the "real"
world because the ultimate reality exists beyond the
physical world.

18. • According to Plato, the "soul" is indeed the most
divine aspect of the human being.
• The self/soul/mind according to Plato is the aspect of
the human beings by which the Forms are known.

19. Three Parts of the Soul
The element that enjoys
sensual experiences, such
as food, drink, and sex
Appetitive
(sensual) The elements that forbids the
person to enjoy the sensual
experiences; the part that
loves truth, hence, should
rule over the other parts of
the soul through the use of
reason.
Rational
(reasoning ) The element that is inclined
toward reason but
understands the demands
of passion; the part that
loves honor and victory.
Spirited
(feeling)

20. St. Augustine

21. • Saint Augustine, also called Saint Augustine of Hippo,
is one of the Latin Fathers of the Church, one of the
Doctors of the Church, and one of the most significant
Christian thinkers.
• His written works are among the foundations of
medieval and modern Christian thought.
• He adopted Plato's view that the "self" is an immaterial
(but rational) soul.

22. • Augustine asserted that Forms were concepts existing
within the perfect and eternal God where the soul
belonged.
• Saint Augustine's concept of the "self" was an inner,
immaterial "I" that had self-knowledge and self-
awareness.
• He believed that the human being was both a soul
and body.

23. The Aspects of the Soul
It is able to be
aware of itself.
It recognizes
itself as a
holistic one.
It is aware of
its unity.

24. • Saint Augustine believed that the human being who is
both soul and body is meant to tend to higher, divine,
and heavenly matters because of his/her capacity to
ascend and comprehend truths through the mind.
• Saint Augustine pointed out that a person is similar to
God as regards to the mind and its ability; that by
ignoring to use his/her mind he/she would lose his/her
responsibility to reach real and lasting happiness.

25. René
Descartes

26. • René Descartes was a French philosopher,
mathematician, and scientist.
• He is considered the father of modern Western
philosophy.
• Descartes proposed that doubt was a principal tool of
disciplined inquiry.
• His method was called hyperbolical/metaphysical
doubt, also sometimes referred to as
methodological skepticism.

27. • René Descartes famous line "Cogito ergo sum"
translated as "I think, therefore I am" became a
fundamental element of Western philosophy as it
secured the foundation for knowledge in the face of
radical doubt.

28. Descartes' claims
about the self are:
It is constant; it
is not prone to
change; and it is
not affected by
time.
Only the
immaterial soul
remains the
same
throughout
time.
The immaterial
soul is the
source of our
identity.

29. THE SOUL
• It is a conscious, thinking substance that is
unaffected by time.
• It is known only to itself
• It is not made up of parts. It views the entirety of itself
with no hidden or separate compartments. It is both
conscious and aware of itself at the same time.

30. THE BODY
• It is a material substance that changes through time.
• It can be doubted; the public can correct claims about
the body.
• It is made up of physical, quantifiable, divisible parts.

31. John
Locke

32. • John Locke was a philosopher and physician and
was one of the most influential enlightenment
thinkers.
• If Descartes described the "self" as a thinking thing,
Locke expanded this definition of "self" to include the
memories of that thinking thing.
• Locke believed that the "self" is identified with
consciousness and this "self" consists of sameness
of consciousness.

33. • For Locke, a person's memories provide a continuity
of experience that allows him/her to identify himself/
herself as the same person over time.
• This theory of personal identity allows Locke to justify
a defense of accountability.

34. David
Hume

35. • A Scottish philosopher, economist, and historian
during the Age of Enlightenment.
• He was a fierce opponent of Descartes' rationalism.
• He was one of the three main figureheads of the
influential British Empiricism movement.
• Hume is identified with the bundle theory wherein he
described the "self" or person as a bundle or a
collection of different perceptions that are moving in a
very fast and successive manner; therefore, it is in a
"perpetual flux."

36. MIND'S PERCEPTIONS INTO TWO GROUPS
• Impressions– These are the perceptions that are the
most strong. They enter the senses with most force.
These are directly experienced; they result from
inward and outward sentiments.
• Ideas– These are the less forcible and less lively
counterparts of impressions. These are mechanisms
that copy and reproduce sense data formulated
based upon previously perceived impressions.

37. • Hume asserted that the notion of the "self" could not be
verified through observation.
• He believed there is no logical justification for the
existence of anything other than what your senses
experienced.
• Hume compared the "self" to a nation; whereby a nation
retains its "being a nation" not by some single core or
identity but by being composed of different, constantly
changing elements, such as people, systems, culture and
beliefs.

38. Immanuel
Kant

39. • Philosopher Immanuel Kant is a central figure in modern
philosophy.
• Among other ideas that Kant proposed was that, the
human mind creates the structure of human experience.
• Kant's view of the "self" is transcendental, which means
the "self" is related to a spiritual or nonphysical realm.
• He proposed that it is knowledge that bridges the "self"
and the material things together.

40. Two kinds of consciousness of self (rationality):
1. Consciousness of oneself and one's psychological states
in inner sense (passive awareness of our thoughts and
feelings)
2. Consciousness of oneself and one's states by performing
acts of apperception (active, reflective awareness of our
own experiences and states).

41. • Kant's point is that what truly exist are your ideas and
your knowledge of your ideas; that you perceive the
outside world through the self with your ideas.
• He defended the diverse quality or state of the body and
soul (self) presenting that "bodies are objects of outer
sense; souls are objects of inner sense."

42. Two components of the self:
1. Inner self– The "self" by which you are aware of
alterations in your own state.
2. Outer self– It includes your senses and the physical
world.

43. Kant proposed that the "self" organizes information
in three ways:
1. Raw perceptual input
2. Recognizing the concept
3. Reproducing in the imagination

44. • Kant's self has a unified point of self-reference. You are
conscious of yourself as the subject, and you are
conscious of yourself as a common subject of different
representations.

45. Sigmund
Freud

46. • His most important contribution in psychology, was
psychoanalysis, a practice devised to treat those who
are mentally ill through dialogue.
• Freud did not accept the existence of any single entity
that could be put forward as the notion of "self."
• His work in the field of psychoanalysis was
groundbreaking because it answered questions about the
human psyche in a way that no one else had before him.

47. Three levels of consciousness according to Freud:
1. Conscious– which deals with awareness of present
perceptions, feelings, thoughts, memories, and
fantasies at any particular moment
2. Preconscious/subconscious– which is related to
data that can readily be brought to consciousness
3. Unconscious– which refers to data retained but not
easily available to the individual's conscious
awareness or scrutiny.

48. Freud further structured the psyche/mind into three parts:
1. Id– It operates on the pleasure principle. Every wishful
impulse should be satisfied immediately, regardless of the
consequences.
2. Ego– It operates according to the reality principle. It works out
realistic ways of satisfying the id's demands.
3. Superego– It incorporates the values and morals of society.
The superego's function is to control the id's impulses.

49. Superego consists of two systems:
1. Conscience– if the ego gives in to the id's demands, the
superego may make the person feel bad through guilt.
2. Ideal self– It is an imaginary picture of how you ought to be.It
represents career aspirations; how to treat other people; and
how to behave as a member of society.

50. Gilbert
Ryle

51. • He wrote The Concept of Mind (1949) where he rejected
the notion that mental states are separable from physical
states.
• Ryle called the distinction between mind and matter a
"category-mistake" because of its attempt to analyze the
relation between "mind" and "body" as if the two were
terms of the same categories.

52. Ryle's points against Descartes' theory are:
1. The relation between mind and body are not isolated
processes.
2. Mental processes are intelligent acts, and are not distinct
from each other.
3. The operation of the mind is itself an intelligent act.

53. • According to Ryle, the rationalist view that mental acts are
distinct from physical acts and that there is a mental world
distinct from the physical world is a misconception.
• Ryle described this distinction between mind and body as
"the dogma of the ghost in the machine."
• Ryle criticized the theory that the mind is a place where
mental images are apprehended, perceived, or
remembered.

54. • If Ryle believed that the concept of a
distinct "self" is not real, where do we
get our sense of self?

55. Paul
Churchland

56. • Philosopher and professor Paul Churchland is known for
his studies in neurophilosophy and the philosophy of
mind.
• His philosophy stands on a materialistic view or the
belief that nothing but matter exists.
• Churchland's idea is called eliminative materialism or
the claim that people's common-sense understanding of
the mind is false, and that certain classes of mental
states which most people believe in do not exist.

57. "The physical brain and NOT
the imaginary mind gives us
our sense of self"

58. Maurice
Merleau-Ponty

59. • A philosopher and author who emphasized the body as the
primary site of knowing the world.
• Maurice Merleau-Ponty's idea of "self" is an embodied
subjectivity.
• The term "embodied" is a verb that means to give a body
to.
• Subjectivity, in philosophy, is the state of being a subject.
• A subject acts upon or affects some other entity, which in
philosophy is called the object.

60. • He rejected the Cartesian mind-body dualism and insisted
that the mind and body are intrinsically connected.
• By emphasizing the primacy of the body in an experience,
he also veered away from the established notion that the
center of consciousness is the mind.
• He asserted that human beings are embodied subjectivities,
and that the understanding of the "self" should begin from
this fundamental fact.
• Merleau-Ponty argued that the body is part of the mind, and
the mind is part of the body.

61. That's it for now!
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